Lurid details of sex parties have emerged as an ex-prostitute took the stand in a French trial over a high-end prostitution ring that landed former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in court on pimping charges.
The first part of the trial with 14 accused is focused on a prostitution ring allegedly run by the owners and a publicist for the luxury Carlton hotel in the northern city of Lille.
Investigators of the so-called "Carlton Affair" stumbled across the name of Strauss-Kahn, whose high-flying career and presidential prospects imploded when a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011.
Strauss-Kahn will testify next week but a now-retired prostitute nicknamed Jade made references to "a public figure" she met through the "Carlton" vice ring.
Members of the ring allegedly procured prostitutes for the entourage of Strauss-Kahn and threw sex parties for the disgraced former finance minister in Paris, Brussels and Washington.
Jade explained how Rene Kojfer, 74, former public relations manager for the Carlton and her employer Dominique Alderweireld, a brothel owner in Belgium known as "Dodo the Pimp" would organise for her and other women to attend lunchtime sex parties at a Lille apartment.
"Each person had a partner, there was no orgy where everyone gets involved, the men made their choice," she said, describing a "classy" environment with champagne and a buffet.
Jade had earlier in the investigation described the orgies with Strauss-Kahn as "carnage with a heap of mattresses on the floor", prosecution sources said.
Prostitution is legal in France but procuring -- the legal term for pimping which includes encouraging, benefiting from or organising prostitution -- is a crime.
Kojfer denies the charge of "aggravated pimping", saying he was merely doing a service for his friends by introducing them to prostitutes.
Strauss-Kahn said on Monday he never set foot in the Carlton and did not know Kojfer and "Dodo".
The man once tipped as a potential challenger to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was paraded handcuffed in front of the world's cameras after a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in May 2011 -- a case that was eventually settled in a civil suit.
Strauss-Kahn admits to being a "libertine" who took part in orgies, but denies knowing that the women at the parties were prostitutes.
The economist faces 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 1.5 million euros ($A2.18 million) for "aggravated pimping in an organised group", with judges arguing he played a role in initiating the sex parties and organising the prostitutes.
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